


coldest days (stuck on you)

by yawwwrp



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pining, and like dumb stuff, this is literally just cracky fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 03:12:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3159113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yawwwrp/pseuds/yawwwrp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Brandon Prust wins a winter vacation and gives it to Alex and Brendan.</p>
<p>Contains an excessive amount of food, winter activities and attempts at wooing your crush.</p>
            </blockquote>





	coldest days (stuck on you)

**Author's Note:**

> No one's written 16k of winter vacation Gallys fic yet, so I did. This is really bad and should probably be a romantic comedy starring C-list actors in Ukraine or whatever. There's a lot of whacky Europeans I made up in this.
> 
> I'm not really sure how or why this happened but it all started with the question "can you imagine Chucky and Gally stuck on a ski lift" and it snowballed from there.
> 
> This has a lot of feels and is really cheesy I wish I could say I'm sorry but I've lost all shame.

 

 

Alex knows he should never trust any of his teammates with anything ever again. He also knows that Prusty and Gally are going to pay for this. And he knows that the Alps suck and being stuck on a lift with Brendan fucking Gallagher is the worst thing that's ever happened to him.

 

Everything had actually started out nicely, Prusty and Maripier had won some sort of vacation in the Alps over the olympic break, which they couldn't go to because they already booked a hotel in the Bahamas.

 

„Hey, Prusty, you should give it to Chucky, he needs some vacation anyway!“, PK had shouted and given Alex a little shove in the locker room after their last practice before the break.

 

„What's that supposed to mean?“ Alex crossed his arms and tried to sound as offended as possible.

 

PK laughed and walked to his stall. „Nothing, just that you need to loosen up, man. Mmmmhmmmm.“

 

Alex rolled his eyes and got back to getting dressed when Prusty walked over to him. „That's actually a good idea, Chuck. You wanna go?“

 

Alex shrugged. „Fine, yeah, why not? Skiing and stuff right?“

 

At that exact moment, Gally pranced into the locker room and threw himself at Prusty and Alex. „What's going on, boys?“

 

„I'm giving Alex a vacation.“

 

„Ohhh, why do you never give me anything other than noogies and tips on punching, Prusty?“

 

Prusty punched Gally's arm and rolled his eyes at him. „Because you're a midget who can't fight. It's a vacation for two, if you ask Chuck nicely, he might take ya.“ With that note he walked back to his stall and off to the showers.

 

Which left Alex alone in the clutchest of a puppy eyed Gally. „No.“

 

„But Chuuuuuuuu-“

 

„No.“

 

Gally put on a pout and stared at him. „Why not?“

 

Alex sighed and turned back to his stall. „Because you're annoying and I don't like you.“

 

Gally forced him to turn to him again and honest to god made a duckface with a pleading look. „Pleasepleaseplease, I'm gonna be so un-annoying! Lemme go on vacay, Chucky!“

 

Nate came into the locker room from the showers and gave them a look. „You guys are disgusting.“ He ran his fingers through his wet hair before squinting at Alex. „You should take me to Prusty's thing. I'm so much cooler than Gally. I can be, like, your wingman and shit.“

 

Alex took a deep breath. „I'm not taking either of you.“

 

See, the thing is, he wasn't gonna take Gally because he definitely could not spend two weeks being together with the guy 24/7 without his heart collapsing. It's not a crush, not at all. It's just. Stockholm Syndrome or something. From rooming together with him on the road. Totally a thing, look it up. And he sure as hell wasn't gonna take Nate, because Nate never shuts up and is the worst wingman in history. Granted, Alex wasn't planning on hooking up or anything, but still. Nate's a great guy, but still a human disaster when it comes to anything related to flirting, dancing or doing sudokus.

 

-

 

When Alex reached the airport he honestly did not expect Gally waiting for him at the entrance.

 

„Are you surprised?“, he offered with one of his annoyingly huge grins and Alex was a second away from punching him in the face right then and there.

 

„What are you doing here?“

 

„Well, Prusty said I can go too, because technically he only gave you half the vacation. He said it's good for bonding or whatever.“

 

Alex silently cursed Prusty and sighed heavily. He was in for a very long two weeks.

 

„If you ever annoy me I will literally feed you to alpine bears.“

 

Gally let out a noise that might have been a squeak before nodding. „I'm gonna be super chill, okay? Promise.“

 

Gally and chill. Yeah, right.

 

-

 

The next shock hit Alex when they entered their room at the foot of the mountain.

 

„There's only one bed.“

 

Gally, who had thrown his shit down right next to the door and disappeared into the bathroom to check out if they had a jacuzzi (what the fuck, why would they need a god damn jacuzzi) came out and stopped next to Alex.

 

„Well, there's a couch. I know you love couches, Chucky.“

 

Alex turned his best glare on Gally an snorted. „I got the vacation first. You're taking the couch.“

 

„Nuh-uh, no can do. Coach's gonna have your head if I fuck up my back because I was sleeping on a couch.“

 

„So if I fuck up my back it's okay?“

 

„You're russian, you're like made of steel or whatever, it's probably like physically impossible for you to fuck up your back.“

 

„American.“, Alex growled out and threw his suitcase down on the bed in demonstration. „I'm taking the bed.“

 

Gally picked up his own suitcase and set it down on top of Alex's. „Well, I'm taking the bed too.“

 

Alex let out a frustrated whine and regretted agreeing to go on the vacation in the first place. „I'm not sharing a fucking bed with you.“

 

Gally actually looked hurt for a second before putting on a smug grin. „I'm willing to share. If you're not, there's always the couch.“ He carded through his suitcase for a moment before pulling out his toiletries. „Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to take a shower.“ He paused before adding, „They have one of these rain showers, Chucky. This is amazing. Best vacation _ever_!“

 

Alex hated his life.

 

-

 

All these catastrophies led to them wanting to blow off steam by going skiing right after checking in. They took the ski lift up the mountain, when it stopped halfway. Which is where they've been sitting for the past five minutes now.

 

„Oh no.“, Gally glances down to the slope below them. „This sucks, I hope it starts up again in a second.“

 

Alex lets out a deep sigh and leans back. „Yeah.“

 

„We should play a game.“

 

„No.“

 

„Come on, Chucky. Don't be such a killjoy.“

 

„I'm not a killjoy, I just don't want to play your stupid games.“ The cold wind is burning his cheeks now, and he zips his jacket up further.

 

Gally huffs and swings his feet back and forth. Great, Alex was stuck on a ski lift in the Alps with a 22 year old child.

 

„I'm dreaaaaming, of a whiiiiiiite christmaaaaa-“

 

„It's February. And stop singing.“

 

„Chucky, why do you hate fun?“

 

Alex stays silent and listens to the wind rustling through the trees below them. He can hear some kids skiing down the slope shouting and laughing quietly in the distance. The sky is getting darker a little bit and Alex regrets their decision to go skiing in the late afternoon.

 

„Hey, Chucky?“

 

„What.“

 

„Thanks for letting me come.“

 

Alex turns to look at him. „You kinda invited yourself, Gally.“

 

Gally shrugs and starts swinging his legs again. „Well, you coulda just avoided me the whole time but you let me come along for skiing so.“

 

Alex drops his gaze to the slope again.

 

„You really don't wanna play any games?“

 

„Will you ever just shut up?“

 

Gally laughs. „Come on, drop the whole stoic Russian routine!“

 

Alex gives him a shove that makes their seat sway a little. „I swear to god, if you call me russian one more time, I'm going to fucking throw you down there!“

 

Gally continues laughing but puts his hands up in surrender. „Fine, fine!“ When his laughter quiets down he adds, „Couldn't throw me down there anyway because I'm your best frieeeeeend-“

 

„Stop singing!“

 

Gally bites his lips and tries to turn around in his seat. „Why is no one fun on this lift? We've been stuck here for hours! We shoulda started a choir already!“

 

„We've been stuck here for like ten minutes at most. You just have the attention span of a toddler.“

 

„So not true, Chuckster!“

 

They sit in silence for a few long moments before Gally opens his mouth again. Alex is ready to punch him in the face for real if he hears any more stupid songs, but isn't prepared for what Gally says next.

 

„I'm serious though. Thanks for letting me tag along.“ Gally's voice is softer and quiet and he's trying to bury himself into his jacket a little more to keep warm in the cold winter winds. „I think it's gonna be nice, you know? Just us two, hanging out.“

 

Alex's heart is doing things he's pointedly trying to ignore now and he almost responds but Gally cuts him off. „Unless you kill me, which wouldn't really be so nice, eh? Baby, you're a sociopaaaaath, a serial killllleeeerrrrr-“

 

„Oh my god! Can this lift _please_ work again?!“

 

Below them, a couple stops on the slopes and points up at them. Alex only hears their muffled voices in the distance but can make out a few words.

 

„You never serenade me on the lift, Margret!“ - „We've been married for almost thirty years, I am not going to serenade you, Hubert!“ - „I hate you, Margret.“ - „Well, tough luck because you put a ring on me!“

 

When the couple skis on down, he still hears Gally humming some song under his breath next to him. Alex honestly wonders what his life is.

 

-

 

Alex is pretty sure that this is how his life will end. Stuck on a lift somewhere in Europe, having to listen to Brendan Gallagher explain five seasons of some sci-fi show to him.

 

„I'm going to throw you off this lift and watch you get run over by skiers and snowboarders or mauled by wild wolves if you don't shut the fuck up.“

 

Gally goes quiet. „You think there's wolves?“

 

Alex rolls his eyes. He can't feel his fingers anymore, his toes are probably beyond hope of ever getting warm again and night time is coming fast, the lift still out of order. „This is ridiculous, why won't they get us the hell down?!“

 

„Chucky, I'm cold.“

 

„So what, you think I'm not?“

 

„Russians don't get cold-“

 

„I'm not fucking russian, Gallagher!“

 

Just when Alex is about to kick Gally's skis off his feet and down to the ground, the lift starts moving again. When they finally get off the lift, the guy managing the controls smiles at them apologetically. „We're so so sorry for the inconvenience!“ He hands them two small cards and gestures at the bistro behind him. „These are coupons for a free meal. Sorry again!“

 

They stuff the cards into their jackets and make their way down the slope, reaching the end just as the sky is a pitch black. They return their rentals and get back to the hotel in comfortable silence, apparently Gally's run out of stupid shit to talk about after being stuck on a lift for ages and babbling it all into Alex's face.

 

When they reach their room, there's a brief argument about who gets the bathroom first, which is decided by rock-paper-scissors and leaves Alex to turn on the tv to try and find a channel in english while Gally runs off to shower.

 

He eventually settles on some sports station in italian, which he can understand a little, when his phone rings. Alex checks the screen and almost dreads answering the call when he hears Prusty's cheerful voice.

 

„How's the winterland, Chucky?“

 

„It was fine before you called.“ He hears Prusty laughing and someone talking to him in the background.

 

„How are you and Gallagher getting on?“ Alex can just picture Prusty's smug face as he says it.

 

„Great. Thanks for inviting him, you asshole.“

 

„Trouble in paradise?“

 

„He's annoying as hell and you suck.“

 

Gally walks into the room wearing nothing but a towel around his waist and points at the bathroom behind him. He makes a weird face, a mix between pissed, hurt and determined and starts whispering when he sees that Alex is on the phone. „Bathroom's free. Who's that?“

 

„Prusty, I'm handing you over to Gally. I hope you get a sunburn, see ya.“ Alex shoves the phone at Gally and escapes into the bathroom to avoid not only Prusty and Gally chatting about probably super lame shit but also the way his chest hurt a little when he saw Gally's face and his oncoming boner. First of all, Alex always calls Gally annoying, why would he suddenly be offended by that? And secondly, Gally really needs to stop the half naked walking around or this vacation will have a lot of cold showers in store for Alex.

 

-

 

Dinner is super weird. They decided to just get food in the hotel's restaurant instead of going out and are now sitting at a corner table in jeans and t-shirts stuffing their face with breadsticks.

 

What makes all of this weird is Gally. Because, of course it's Gally.

 

After Prusty's phone call he got all weird and it throws Alex for a loop. He actually pulled Alex's fucking chair out for him and let him order first and he's weirdly quiet, occasionally asking Alex on his opinion on overpriced wines and how his family is doing.

 

It's all very strange and Alex feels confused.

 

After dessert, they decide to take a quick detour to the hotel bar on their way up to the room. They order some beers and sit down on the stools at the bar. The bar's not too full, just about twenty people excluding them, only half of them around their age.

 

After a while, two blonde girls walk up behind Gally and tap him on the shoulder. Alex quickly busies himself tearing the label off his beer bottle. Gally turns to them and gives them a smile.

 

„What's up, ladies?“

 

„Hey, we saw you sitting here. I'm Lena, this is Anna.“, the taller girl introduces.

 

The shorter girl, Anna is covered in freckles and smiles shyly at them. „Hi.“

 

„Nice to meet ya.“ Gally shakes their hands and throws an awkward arm around Alex, uncomfortable and weird because of their sitting positions. „I'm Brendan, this here is my buddy Alex.“

 

The girls smile at Alex and give them a nod before turning back to Gally. „So, what are you doing here?“

 

Gally and the girls have a conversation about vacationing and winter sports for a few minutes before Gally pays a round of drinks for them. Alex expects Gally to wander off with them now and makes to get up and walk up to their room. What happens though, is that Gally gives the girls a good night and turns his back on their stunned impressions, turning his attention back to Alex.

 

„So, where were we?“

 

Alex probably looks dumb with surprised eyes and his staring. „Uhm, you know they were flirting with you, right?“

 

Gally turns his head back to see Lena and Anna walk off, over to a table of guys wearing distinctly norwegian sweaters and crocs. „Who, them?“

 

Alex hums and waits for Gally to look at him again before he nods. „Yeah.“

 

Gally shrugs and takes a swig of his beer. „Yeah, so what?“

 

Alex gives him a look. „So what what? You just cockblocked yourself.“

 

Gally shrugs again and gives him a smile. „Whatever. You should be happy, you get all my attention for yourself!“

 

Alex rolls his eyes and orders another round for them.

 

-

 

Apparently the bar gets packed around 10 am and Alex and Gally start talking to a group of guys from Florida who introduce themselves as „Don, Jon and Vaughn, man! You guys are dope!“.

 

Unfortunately, Don, Jon and Vaughn's only mission is to get as hammered as possible and Gally and Alex get dragged right into it with them.

 

Which is how they end up standing in front of some room on the fourth floor at 2 am, their shoes in their hands, giggling.

 

„I don' think this is the right number, Chuck.“, Gally slurs and leans agains the wall.

 

Alex's vision is a little blurry around the edges as he grabs the room key from Gally's hand. „Says 204, Gally. That's like-“ he stumbles a little and turns around a couple times trying to find out which direction the elevator is. „-that's like, lower.“

 

Gally giggles. „Lower, eh?“ He waggles his eyebrows suggestively before sighing heavily and slumping to the ground. „Don' wanna walk. Ya need to carry me.“

 

Alex laughs loudly before he remembers there are actually people asleep here and stops himself. „Not gon' carry ya, Bren.“ He holds out a hand for him and Gally grabs it but makes no move to get up. „On your feet.“

 

Gally sighs again and whines as he lets Alex pull him up. They stumble towards the elevator, Gally hanging heavily onto Alex's side.

 

When they've finally reached their room, Gally throws the door shut behind them and tugs Alex in for a hug. Alex has the fleeting thought of wishing he were sober right now, when Gally rests his forehead against his shoulder.

 

„'s nice.“, he mumbles drunkenly and Alex carefully wraps his arms around Gally's shoulders. „You're nice. Like. Super nice.“

 

Alex chuckles. „You're drunk.“

 

„Shut up.“ Gally pushes away and stares at him challengingly with glassy eyes. „You're drunk too. But like. You are nice. I know 'm annoying. But. But you're still nice.“

 

Alex swallows hard and there's a dull pain throbbing in his head already. „Bren-“

 

„'s cool. Let's-“ Gally waves weakly at the bed. „-bed.“, he finishes lamely.

 

Alex nods and lets him go to get dressed for bed. He fills two glasses with water and shoves one at Gally before getting ready for bed himself.

 

„I knew Vaughn was sneakin' us tequila between the, the, other shots!“, Gally tries to argue but Alex just shushes him and wiggles under the covers. Gally finishes his glass and sets it on the nightstand before crawling into bed next to Alex.

 

He's quiet for so long Alex almost thinks he's fallen asleep before he rolls over closer to Alex and drops his head on his chest.

 

„'s more comfy.“, he mumbles. „You're a good pillow, Chuck.“

 

Alex closes his eyes and wills the room to stop spinning around him before circling a hand around Gally's waist, rubbing small circles with his thumb. „Go t'sleep.“

 

„Okay.“ Silence again. „G'night, Chuck.“

 

„Night, Gally.“

 

-

 

Alex hates very few things as much as he hates hangovers.

 

When he wakes up he feels warm and cozy but when he blinks open his eyes he stares straight into Gally's mop of messy hair on his chest and he realizes their, uh, situation, where they're pressed up against eachother, head to toe. Gally's still snoring loudly, drooling all over his chest, mumbling words in his sleep every now and then.

 

Alex feels his stomach flip over and he pushes Gally off of him in a quick move to run into the bathroom to throw up.

 

Gally's sitting on the bed, head in his hands, when Alex comes back into the room.

 

„Why?“, he whines out and looks up at Alex with bleary, bloodshot eyes. „We are such idiots.“ He groans before falling back on the bed again and pulling a pillow over his head. „The cool side of the pillow is the best side of the pillow.“, comes out muffled through the pillow a second later.

 

Alex sits down on the edge of the bed and wills his head to stop hurting. „Plan?“

 

He hears Gally shoving the pillow away from his face and turns to him when he's sitting up again. Alex curses a little internally because no one should be allowed to look like this when hungover. Gally's hair is rumpled and Alex imgines running his fingers through Gally's hair in his sleep before shoving the thought out of his mind. There are marks from where he slept on Alex's t-shirt on his face and he makes a miserable facial expression. He seems even smaller than usual. Apparently he checked Gally out a little too obviously because Gally gives him a look and pulls the blankets up to his chin.

 

„What plan?“ Gally's voice is still rough from sleep and it's barely above a whisper.

 

„A plan for the day, Gally.“

 

Gally groans and pouts. „Can we just stay in and order room service? Breakfast for champs?“

 

Normally, Alex would protest and drag him outside or just go out alone, but Alex feels like shit so Gally's plans sound actually fantastic rather than idiotic for once.

 

He scoots further up the bed and lies down shoulder to shoulder next to Gally. „Fine. But you order the food.“

 

Gally gives him a weak salute and Alex turns on the tv.

 

Alex's mind keeps going back to last night, trying to remember their conversation, but he comes up with very little more than murky memories.

 

The day goes by with them watching really bad soap operas in a language they don't understand and them dozing off to sleep every now and then, only staying awake long enough to eat.

 

Sometime in the afternoon, Gally talks to his parents on the phone and Alex uses the time to call home too, only to get shitty sexual innuendos regarding him and Gally from Anna and some advice on what to do in their region from his parents, who apparently looked up the hotel they're staying in on the internet.

 

When they put Anna back on the line, Alex sneaks a glance over to Gally talking on the phone, laughing loudly, then groaning when his headache sets in.

 

He switches to Russian before speaking to his sister. „I honestly don't know what to do.“ Gally throws him a look but continues talking to his family.

 

„You know it's rude to talk in russian when you're with other people.“, Anna chastises and then there's rustling in the background, because she's going to another room, probably.

 

„Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm either gonna kill him or like. I don't know. He's, touchy.“

 

„Whoa there, brother dear. I do not need to know details about your sex life.“

 

„There is no sex life.“ Alex sighs. „That's the whole problem.“

 

„Seems to me like he can't wait to sex you up.“ Anna cracks up and Alex groans.

 

„I'm never calling you again.“

 

„Love you too, talk to you soon!“

 

They hang up a couple moments later and Alex waits for Gally to finish his phone call to turn the volume on the tv back on.

 

When Gally settles back into the pillows next to Alex, he gives him a questioning look. „I don't like it when you speak Russian.“

 

Alex snorts. „You're the one who always tells me I am.“

 

Gally shrugs and motions him to turn the volume up. „Yeah, still. What did you talk about?“ He sounds genuinely curious and Alex feels the urge to stick out his tongue at him.

 

„Not telling you.“

 

Gally makes a face and turns his attention back to the tv. „Rude.“

 

-

 

In the evening they actually manage to get outside the room and walk the short way to a restaurant Alex's mom recommended him earlier.

 

„I'm craving steak, do they have steak here?“, Gally muses and bumps Alex's shoulder while walking.

 

Alex shrugs. „Dunno. We'll see.“

 

They're quiet again when Gally suddenly stops. Alex walks a couple steps before turning back around to him. „Why'd you stop?“

 

„What's wrong?“

 

„Huh?“

 

Gally flails around trying to articulate, what, Alex doesn't know. „You're being all-“ he waves his hands again „-grumpy. Grumpier than usual. And it's not the hangover, because I know hung over You.“

 

Alex sighs and grabs his arm. „Let's just get something to eat, okay?“

 

But, predictably, Gally is as stubborn as a mule. He just keeps his feet planted to the floor staring at Alex. „Not before you tell me what's going on in that funny looking head of yours.“

 

Alex grimaces. „Funny looking?“

 

Gally wrestles his arm away from Alex and crosses his arms over his chest.

 

„It's fucking cold out here, let's get to the restaurant, come on.“

 

„No.“

 

Alex swears under his breath. Gally is an actual child. He grabs Gally's arm again but slips when he's tugging him forward, linking their hands together. Somehow, Gally's feet magically start moving again and they make their way to the restaurant hand in hand. Alex's hand feels hot in Gally's and he tries to let go, but Gally squeezes a little tighter and gets a look from Alex.

 

„What? It's slippery. I don't wanna fall and break my legs. Steady me, oh hero mine.“

 

Alex just sighs some more and by the time they reach the restaurant he's almost forgotten they're holding hands, until Gally lets go and he feels weirdly empty.

 

The restaurant is much nicer than the hotel restaurant and apparently Alex hadn't really paid much attention to Gally getting dressed earlier because he looks good. Like, really good. As in, nice shirt, nice pants, he guesses he must have put on cologne as well and his heart sinks a little as he thinks Gally's probably trying to pick up tonight. Alex, in turn feels vaguely underdressed right now, just a plaid shirt and jeans and slips his gaze away from Gally.

 

„You look nice.“ Alex hears himself say, before he can stop himself. „I mean, except from your ugly mug.“, he adds quickly.

 

Gally gives him a grin and starts folding the napkin on the table into something Alex guesses he would call origami but is really just a balled up napkin. „Maybe I'm trying to woo you, Galchenyuk.“

 

Alex swallows hard and is thankfully saved by the waitress coming over to their table.

 

After they order, Gally leans forward on his elbows and stares at Alex. „So. Wanna tell me what's going on with you now?“

 

Alex shrugs. „Nothing.“

 

Gally snorts and leans back again. „Bullshit.“ He waits for a response, but when Alex stays silent he just picks his napkin up again. „Fine, whatever, don't tell me then. What do you wanna do after dinner?“

 

Alex has no clue, really. Going out seems like a very, very bad idea, seeing as his head still hurts, but being cooped up all the time is boring as well. „Don't know. What are you gonna do?“

 

Gally pulls out his phone and holds it about an inch from Alex's face, making it impossible for him to see what Gally's trying to show him. „I'm glad you asked, my grumpy _american_ friend.“ He waits for a second and raises his eyebrows a couple of times to bring attention to him calling Alex american. When he gets no reaction he just sighs and shakes his phone a little before pulling it back. „Apparently there's a theater not far from here. We can call a cab and see if they show any movies in English.“

 

Alex doesn't miss the first person plural here and raises an eyebrow at Gally. „Who says I want to hang out with you?“

 

Gally looks confused and then angry for a second before grinning again. „Ouch, Chucky. I am a fucking _delight_ to be around.“

 

They eat mostly in silence and call a cab to the theater afterwards. On the ride into the small town in the valley, Gally chats animatedly with the cab driver and Alex look at the scenery.

 

When they get to the movie theater, they only show two movies in English, and they missed the first one, which leads to them sitting in the back row of some romantic drama comedy. A few rows down, a teenaged couple is sharing popcorn and two elderly women sit on their far right side.

 

„I can't believe you're making me watch this crap.“, Alex hisses at Gally in the dark.

 

Gally throws a popcorn at him and chuckles quietly. „Oh shush. This is a great movie, can't you see how great it is?“

 

Alex scoffs and stuffs a huge portion of popcorn into Gally's face to shut him up.

 

Gally squawks and chews as obnoxiously as humanly possible at Alex.

 

In the final minutes of the movie Alex turns to Gally to tell him that „I told you she'd end up with that guy!“ when Gally lets out an almost inaudible sob and chews on his bottom lip.

 

„Dude. Are you crying right now?“

 

„No?!“

 

„You are! You're totally crying!“ The two women in their row glare daggers at them.

 

„It's not my fault you don't have emotions, Chucky!“, Gally hisses and pouts at him.

 

This can not possibly be Alex's life.

 

-

 

When they're back in their room Gally stands at the window for a moment before turning to Alex, who's changing into a t-shirt. „So... this was fun.“

 

Alex shrugs. „Yeah. I guess. The movie sucked.“

 

Gally laughs at him. „Oh, you liked it. You totally got invested!“

 

„Not as invested as you, obviously.“

 

They fall silent again, Gally disappearing into the bathroom to brush his teeth and get ready for bed.

 

Alex is confused. Like. Utterly and impossibly confused. Gally is still Gally, obviously. Short and annoying and chatty and having a dumb laugh. But he's also completely different than usual, and Alex is not sure how. Softer, maybe. More relaxed. It's weird. It also makes these stupid feelings in his gut do somersaults and he's completely helpless.

 

When they're both in bed, lights off, almost a foot of space between them, Gally nudges his calf slightly with his foot. „Hey, Chucky?“, Gally whispers.

 

„What?“, Alex whispers back. He has absolutely no idea why they're whispering, but it feels right, sort of nice, in the dark.

 

„Are you mad at me?“

 

Alex turns onto his side to look at Gally. „Why would I be mad?“

 

Gally follows his motion and does the same, his features illuminated by the dim moonlight shining through the window. „I don't know. You didn't want me to come. And then we were stuck on the lift, and you're having russian secrets, and I just... I don't know, I thought you might be mad at me. For. Being here, or something.“

 

Gally's silent after that, waiting for an answer, or maybe an explanation from Alex.

 

„I'm not mad at you.“ Alex wants to reach out and touch Gally, just, hold him or something like that.

 

Gally nods. „Alright.“ He turns on his other side and leaves Alex staring at his back. Alex sighs and punches himself in the face mentally, before closing his eyes and falling asleep to the sound of Gally's even breathing.

 

-

 

Winter vacation, more like, The Galchenyuk Cuddling Catastrophe.

 

Alex wakes up with his chin hooked over Gally's shoulder, curled tight and protectively around his teammate, his arm slung across Gally's middle. Alex is spooning Gally. He has a minor freakout and carefully inches away from Gally, checking the time on his phone on the nightstand. It's too early in the morning to get up yet, so he just stays on his side and tries to fall back asleep, a plan foiled by his racing heart.

 

After several minutes Gally makes a noise in his sleep and rolls over to face Alex. He lifts his head slightly, stares at him with barely open eyes and just goes „No.“, before letting his head fall back down again and shifting to lie half on top of Alex like a dead octopus, limbs everywhere.

 

Gally's back in his dreamworld and makes humming noises in his sleep, not entirely drowning out his snores in between. Alex has a hysterical moment where he misses his cat sleeping on his chest, purring when he runs his fingers through its fur and almost shouts curses at himself out loud when he realizes he's petting Gally's hair. Gally just grunts when Alex removes his fingers and wiggles a little on top of him. A very, very bad, horrible, terrible decision.

 

Alex pushes Gally off of him, which wakes him up and makes him sleepily glare at Alex. „'The fuck?“

 

„Stay on your side of the bed!“ Alex forces out and turns his back to Gally. He pulls his pillow a little over his head and is asleep before Gally even lies down again.

 

-

 

The morning is awkward.

 

Gally is uncharacteristically quiet, Alex is tense and neither of them look the other in the eyes.

 

It's Gally who breaks the silence when they load their plates at the breakfast bar. „I'm sorry.“

 

Alex almost drops his breakfast egg and looks at Gally before walking over to the nearest empty table. Gally drops into the seat across his and stares at him. „I'm sorry.“, he repeats. „I just. I.“ He blushes a little when he continues. „I'm a little homesick.“

 

Alex finally looks up at him from his toast. „You're never homesick.“

 

Gally shrugs. „Not when we're in the States or Canada.“

 

They don't say anything after that, until they're done with breakfast. „So, what? You want to cuddle because you're far from home?“

 

Gally gets a defiant look in his eyes. „Maybe.“ He sighs. „I'm sorry, okay? I made things awkward and I'm sorry.“

 

Alex tries to look anywhere but Gally's face. „You could've told me.“

 

Gally nods. „Yeah. Sorry. Again.“

 

They don't talk about it anymore after that. They spend the day skiing without any further incidents and decide to check out the indoor hotel pool after dinner.

 

„Shouldn't you like, wait two hours or something, before going into the water?“, Gally grins and puts his towel on one of the deck chairs standing a couple feet away from the pool. Besides them, only a young couple with a little kid and a guy swimming like he wants to join the next olympic team are at the pool.

 

„You can wait two hours if you want.“, Alex offers and walks over to the steps leading into the pool.

 

Gally scrambles after him, almost slipping on the wet floor and waits until Alex is in the water to jump in right next to him.

 

The guy who's probably a lifeguard or whatever sitting in a chair on the other side of the room shouts „No jumping!“ and Gally throws him an apologetic smile.

 

They try to dunk eachother uncerwater for a while and eventually end up in dead man position in the middle of the pool, much to the annoyance of Olympics Hopeful, Swimmie McSwimmerson.

 

„Are we cool?“ Gally uses his arms to get a little closer to Alex, so he can hear him over the little kid's screaming without having to shout himself.

 

Alex hums. „Yeah. We're cool.“

 

„Good.“ Gally uses the moment to lift Alex's legs up a little which result in him going underwater. When Alex resurfaces, Gally's laughing next to him and swims away, before Alex can reach him. It all feels a little surreal to Alex, being here with Gally, not having to think about practices and games for a little bit, just enjoying this.

 

„Wanna grab a drink later?“, he asks when he's reached and successfully dunked Gally.

 

Gally sputters for a moment and slicks his hair away from his face. Alex swallows the feelings trying to rise up in his chest. He gives Alex a wink. „You asking me on a date, Chucky?“

 

Alex tries to protest, but before he can get a word in, Gally laughs again. „Sure, man. Just, let's stick to one or two beers tonight, eh?“

 

Alex nods and dunks him one more time before getting out of the pool.

 

-

 

The bar is a lot more empty tonight, it's only them and a group of young Americans who are happy the drinking age is lower than in the States and knock back shot after shot.

 

Gally and Alex stick to a table close to the entrance, switching between beer and soda, their hangovers still not a particularly fond memory.

 

Eventually, a few more people come in and Gally and Alex get hit on by a couple girls and even two very drunk guys from Brazil or Spain or something. Alex makes polite conversation until they leave, Gally charms them over god knows what and Alex feels more and more miserable by the second, until Gally eventually shoots all the strangers advances down.

 

„You know that you can pick up, right? Just tell me to round the block 'til the coast is clear or something.“, Alex tries and earns a chuckle from Gally.

 

„Awfully nice of ya, bud, but I'm not really in the mood.“ He shoots Alex a smile and Alex can't help feeling like something's off. Not a second later, Gally puts a grin on again and points at the still drinking Americans.

 

„I bet you twenty bucks that the short guy's gonna throw up after the next shot.“

 

Alex shakes his head and takes the bet.

 

-

 

They go up to their room early and Gally throws himself, no really, throws himself, on the bed before Alex can even close the door.

 

„This is nice, I'm almost regretting having to go back home.“

 

Alex raises an eyebrow at him. „Thought you were homesick?“

 

Gally shrugs. „Don't mean I can't appreciate comfort, man.“

 

They play some dumb quiz game Gally found in the app store on his phone for a while, until Gally can't hold back his yawns anymore and drops his phone on his face every five minutes.

 

„We should go to bed.“, Alex says and puts their phones on the nightstand. Gally nods and rubs his eyes a little before hopping off the bed and shuffling into the bathroom.

 

There's an ensuing toothpaste war that lasts a lot shorter than it normally would, because Gally's almost falling asleep standing up, and when they're finally in sleep gear and both stretching and yawning almost at the same time, Gally stops on his way to the bed.

 

„I uh. I can take the, the couch. If you want.“, he mutters and waves his hand at the couch on the other side of the room.

 

Alex shrugs. „It's fine.“ He crawls into bed and folds the blankets back for Gally to slip under.

 

He almost swears he sees Gally's face light up a little at that, but it might have been a prank his sleepy brain played on him. Gally turns the light of and lies on his back, still and tense enough that it's stressing Alex out just lying next to him. He's careful to leave some space between them, but throws one of his legs over Gally's shins and feels Gally go even more rigid than he was before.

 

„It's fine.“, Alex repeats quietly. „Relax.“ And Gally does.

 

Alex feels like something is different between them, doesn't know whether it's good or bad, and his last thought before he falls asleep is that it feels kind of weird to not sleep all tangled up with Gally right now.

 

-

 

Apparently, the cuddling has become a thing. That doesn't mean Alex doesn't freak out.

 

He wakes up buried under Gally once again and sighs. That's when Gally turns his head a little to look up at him. He can't have been awake for long, because his eyes are kind of not really open yet, and his smile is sleepy and dopey and he mumbles a quiet „Mornin'“ when he sees that Alex is awake.

 

„Uh.“ _It's way too early for this kinda shit_ , Alex thinks. „Morning.“

 

Gally just buries himself a little more into his coccoon made of Alex's t-shirt and the blankets piled on top of them. „'m not gettin' up.“

 

Alex definitely needs to get out of here, both his dick and his brain remind him helpfully.

 

„I just gotta, uh“, he pauses and eases himself out from under Gally, who makes a protesting noise. „Bathroom.“ He practically runs into the bathroom and shuts the door with more force than strictly necessary before he sits down on the edge of the bathtub. This is ridiculous.

 

He comes back out of the bathroom, freshly showered and feeling just as confused, but slightly better, about half an hour later and finds Gally still curled up in a nest of blankets in the middle of the bed.

 

„Gally.“ There's no reaction. „Bren.“ Nothing. „Gallagher!“

 

„Whaaaaaat?“ Gally pushes the blankets away from his face to blink at Alex. „I said I'm not gettin' up.“

 

Alex shrugs. „Okay, so no breakfast for you, see you later.“

 

Within the blink of an eye, Gally jumps from the bed, runs into the bathroom and Alex can hear a „Give me ten minutes!“ muffled through the door. A satisfied smile spreads across his face as he waits for Gally to be ready for breakfast.

 

They make their way to the mostly empty breakfast room, after checking the time, Alex realizes they're actually pretty late, and shovel food into them until the breakfast bar closes. He kind of expected things to be weird, but Gally acts like his usual self, or well, like he did at the beginning of their vacation.

 

„We should totally check out that sledding place.“, Gally says around a mouth full of muffin and Alex grimaces at his manners. „I'm serious.“

 

„Okay.“ He picks at his own muffin before looking back at Gally. „There's a game on tonight, Canada against I don't remember who, you wanna watch it?“

 

Gally nods enthusiastically and thankfully swallows his food before speaking. „Hell yeah! So, sledding, food, sledding, hockey?“

 

Alex gives him a thumbs up and finishes the rest of his muffin.

 

They make their way to the sledding place Gally found about an hour later. According to the guy renting out the sleighs, they have to go up the snowed in and frozen serpentines going up a hill for about an hour and can then go down them for about fifteen minutes. Gally is as excited as a little dog about it and keeps walking ahead of Alex, shouting his meaningless chatter over his shoulder.

 

Up on the hill is a stand where they sell hot chocolate, so they sit around on their sleighs for a couple minutes drinking it in silence.

 

„Shame there's nothing like this back home, eh?“, Gally asks and sips his hot chocolate.

 

Alex nods and watches as a small family starts their sleighride down the streets.

 

When they've finished their drinks, they get into position. Gally nudges him with his elbow and grins. „Race you to the finish line?“

 

„There is no finish line.“

 

„To the end of the street, you idiot.“

 

Instead of answering, Alex just pushes off and hears Gally let out a curse behind him.

 

„You fucking cheater!“, Gally shouts at him when he passes him on a curve and Alex laughs when he crashes into a pile of snow on the side of the street not a minute later.

 

They both agree that it was a photofinish in the end, even though Alex is pretty sure he won by a hair and Gally keeps insisting he won anyway because Alex totally got disqualified for the early start.

 

They return their sleighs and get a hot dog near the hotel and decide on a change of plans to go skiing again.

 

Someone up there must hate them though, because not even five minutes into the lift ride, they get stuck again.

 

„You've gotta be fucking kidding me.“ Alex throws his head back and groans.

 

„This has got to be sign, maybe Adam Sandler is stuck on the same lift and we're supposed to convince him to make a movie like Happy Gilmore again!“, Gally thinks out loud and cranes his neck around to see who's sitting in the seat behind them. „Will the real Adam Sandler please stand u-“ Alex clamps a hand over Gally's mouth before he can finish his shouting.

 

„I wasn't kidding about throwing you down there the first time we were stuck.“

 

Alex is at least 99% sure Gally would lick his palm now if he wasn't wearing gloves and takes his hand away. Instead, Gally sticks out his tongue and then starts whistling the Full House theme song.

 

Alex just whines and drops his head on the safety bar.

 

-

 

Everything feels sort of like a déjà-vu. It's getting darker, Gally is getting more annoying and Alex is contemplating the finer points of breaking all his bones trying to get off this lift.

 

Gally is now trying to „lighten the mood“ as he calls it with every single terrible joke he knows. And he knows a lot.

 

„And then he says, like, what are you doing with the noodles?“, Gally finishes and Alex is almost concerned Gally will hurt himself by laughing that much. „Get it?“

 

Alex just sighs and tries to get someone's attention from the slope. „Hey! We're stuck up here!“

 

Gally sulks and demonstratively stares at everything but Alex. „I'm just trying to make this more fun, okay.“

 

„Well, your jokes suck.“

 

„Maybe if you weren't so bitchy all the time, I wouldn't need jokes to-“

 

„To what?“ Alex is aware they're shouting and that they're not alone on this lift, but he's pissed off and cold and he just wants to get off this god damn thing already.

 

Gally finally turns to him and gives him a shove. „To make you smile, okay? Motherfucker.“

 

Alex's heart is doing that thing again where he thinks he's going into cardiac arrest and he swallows hard. He opens his mouth to say something, but doesn't know what, and closes it again.

 

They don't say anything for a while, and Alex can see Gally shivering, when the wind picks up.

 

„Are you cold?“ His voice sounds loud as it breaks the silence.

 

„Well yeah, smartass. Aren't you?“

 

Alex takes a deep breath. „Sorry for being. I don't know. Bitchy.“ He says it with a poor imitation of Gally's voice and it actually makes Gally's lips quirk up at the corners. „Stop being pissed off when we're stuck on a lift, okay.“

 

„You're always pissed off at me no matter where we are so why can't I be pissed off?“

 

„I'm not always pissed off.“

 

„Yeah you are.“ Gally gives him an accusatory look. He doesn't look angry anymore, he just looks hurt and a little disappointed. „You said so. To Prusty. And to me. And probably to your family as well.“

 

Alex would actually be fine with the safety bar opening and him plummeting to his death on a ski slope right now. „I didn't-“

 

„You didn't think I heard? Well, I did.“

 

„No, I mean. I did say that-“

 

„At least you admit it.“

 

„Just let me finish, okay?!“ Alex grabs Gallys arms to turn him a little more towards him so they're face to face. „I said you were annoying, yes. But that's like. A good thing? Right? I'm the bitchy one so you gotta be annoying me into being. You know. Happy. Or something.“

 

Gally squints at him. „That doesn't make any sense.“

 

Alex lets out a frustrated groan. „I don't find you annoying. I mean, I do. You're very annoying. But I like it.“

 

Gally hesitates before smiling. „Really?“

 

„Shut up.“

 

The lift finally starts moving again and Alex makes a decision to never ever take moving lifts for granted.

 

-

 

They use their free meal cards on top of the slope and then make their way down before the slope closes.

 

After showering and a lengthy discussion about whether or not Alex is patriotic by rooting for America and not Russia, they settle in on the couch in front of the tv to watch the game.

 

Gally is half draped over Alex's lap, shouting at the tv every few minutes and Alex tries his hardest to keep his hands to himself.

 

At one of the tv timeouts, Gally shift and pillows his head on Alex's thighs, glancing up to him briefly. „Okay?“

 

Alex nods jerkily and Gally turns back to the tv. Honestly, this vacation is torture.

 

After first period, Alex expects Gally to sit up, or go do something, anything, but he just stays right there in Alex's lap, shifting so he lies on his back looking up at Alex.

 

„You know“, he starts, and Alex forces himself to look down to him. „I'm pretty sure I've told you this before. But you make a really comfortable pillow.“

 

„Uhm.“

 

Gally grins and lifts his arm to pat his cheek. „I'm just saying.“

 

Alex ducks away from his arm and drinks Gally's ensuing laughter in, smiling a little.

 

In the latter half of the second period, he can tell Gally's close to sleep because he doesn't shout anymore, just makes some random noises every now and then, and eventually, about two minutes before the period ends, he hears Gally's soft snoring.

 

Alex looks down at his sleeping friend, only ever really still, only ever really quiet, when he's asleep. Well, if you don't count his sleeptalking. He softly runs a hand through Brendan's hair, it's getting a little long again, and allows himself to have this for a moment.

 

He misses the beginning of the third period and apparently also that Gally's woken up again.

 

„Feels good.“, Gally mumbles and Alex jerks his hand back in surprise and shock. Gally just pokes a finger into his thigh and prompts, „Don't stop.“

 

And hell, he doesn't have to say that twice. Alex hates himself a little, because he knows he can't have this, can't have Gally, not always, not forever, and not the way he wants to. But for now he settles on running his fingers through Gally's hair and settling in next to him in bed when the game is over.

 

He's already fast asleep when Gally intertwines their fingers.

 

-

 

The next morning, Alex wakes up feeling cold. A quick glance around the bed tells him Gally's already up, and he almost has a heart attack when said Gally sits on the couch holding two mugs grinning at him.

 

„Why're ya up?“, Alex mumbles sleepily and curls up more under the blankets.

 

„Got us coffee, got some bagels and muffins here, and“, Gally pauses for dramatic effect, „I got a plan for the day!“

 

Alex just groans and closes his eyes again. He drifts off to sleep again, but gets woken up what can't be more than three minutes later by Gally placing one of the mugs on his head.

 

„Why.“

 

„Get up, loser! We got a busy day ahead of us!“ Gally seems way too chipper to deal with, in Alex's opinion. He grabs the mug from Gally though, before it spills all over him, and sits up.

 

„This coffee is cold.“

 

„Well, if you hadn't slept in, sleeping beauty-“

 

„You coulda woken me up.“

 

Gally goes to sit back on the couch and his face drops a little. Alex might still be halfway asleep, but he's about fifty percent sure Gally is blushing. There's an awkward silence in the room before Gally speaks again.

 

„You need your beauty sleep, have you seen your face lately?“ He grins obnoxiously and squawks when Alex throws a pillow at him.

 

When they've decimated what Gally brought up from the breakfast bar, Alex looks expectantly at him. „You said something about big plans?“

 

Gally honest to god pulls out a brochure. „We're going snow tubing.“

 

Alex chuckles a little and finishes his coffee. „So you can crash into walls of snow again?“

 

Gally glares. „First of all, that wasn't my fault. Clearly there was something wrong with the street. And second of all, shut up. It's gonna be awesome!“

 

-

 

The get to the snow tubing hill around noon and the place is busy with families and little kids. Alex feels a little out of place and decides to look up at the clear blue, sunny winter sky. Gally grabs his hand and storms off with him towards the rental shack and gets them both one of the giant plastic donuts.

 

Gally points down at them excitedly and smiles at Alex. „Habs colours man! Red and blue!“ He pauses and gets a thoughtful look. „The snow is white I guess so we're still representing. Let's go!“

 

Alex smiles a little and shakes his head. They head up the hill and Alex gingerly sits down on the blue ring, expecting Gally to take the lane next to him.

 

Of course, he should've known Gally would do something stupid. Because Gally, being who he is, a gigantic child, screams „Incoming!“, flops down on top of Alex and grabs his own ring with the hand he isn't using to clutch Alex's jacket at his chest. Gally's antics set them both in motion and before Alex can even say anything, they slide down the lane.

 

Gally laughs and shouts into his ear and Alex has a surreal moment where he realizes how close Gally's face is to his and how he could just, lean up and kiss him, just like that.

 

Before he can fully finish his thought, they tumble over eachother into the soft pile of snow at the end of the lane. Gally sits mostly on top of him, snow in his face and all over his clothes, laughing loudly. It warms something in Alex and he has to look away when he feels his cheeks heat up and a smile taking over his face.

 

„A warning woulda been nice, you dork.“

 

Gally shrugs, gets up and dusts off some of the snow. „Would it really have been half as much fun then, though?“ He holds out a hand to Alex to help him get up, and in revenge for what Gally did, Alex reverses their positions so he's standing over the now again sitting in the snow Gally.

 

Gally giggles and throws a handful of snow up at Alex. „Low blow, Chucky.“

 

Alex just grins and grabs both their rings. „You gonna take your own now?“

 

Gally gets up again and bumps their shoulders together. „Rematch of the sledding race?“

 

„Oh, it's on.“

 

-

 

They spend most of the afternoon goofing around in the snow and get involved in a snowball fight, or more accurately, a snowball war, between two families. When they reach the hotel, it's already dark outside and their phones are blowing up.

 

„Maybe we should take them with us next time?“, Gally asks as he checks his messages.

 

Alex snorts and sits down next to him on the couch. „So you can lose it in the snow?“

 

Gally rams an elbow into his ribs and makes a face at him. „I'm not a child!“

 

Alex says nothing and goes through his own notifications. They call back some people that left voice messages and talk to Pricey in Sochi on speakerphone.

 

„It's really cool, actually. They-“

 

„You guys are missing out! You are so missing out! Haha, losers!“, PK interrupts Pricey and Alex and Gally hear Pricey let out a sigh.

 

There's a brief moment where Pricey and PK exchange some words in the background before Pricey's voice rings clear through the phone again. „Sorry. Do you see what I'm dealing with?“

 

Gally laughs and huddles a little closer to the phone, and by proxy, Alex, so they're sitting crosslegged face to face on the tiny couch, knees touching. Alex almost drops his phone.

 

„You better win it, Pricey! We watched the game last night, you guys were beauts!“ Gally looks up from the phone at Alex and winks. Alex isn't entirely sure why, but he lets it slide.

 

„You spend your vacation watching hockey? That's sad, guys.“ Pricey sounds amused and says hi to someone in the background. „Alright, I gotta go. You two enjoy the rest of your honeymoon, eh?“

 

Alex wants to protest, but then Pricey's gone and Gally has apparently no intent to move further away from Alex. Quite the opposite, actually, because as soon as the call disconnects he just stretches out his legs and turns around until he leans back with his back to Alex's chest.

 

They're quiet in the moment and when Gally starts rubbing small circles into his knee with his fingers, Alex feels like the room is too small, can't really breathe or move or think clearly.

 

„So, what now?“, Gally asks and cranes his neck to look up at him. „Dinner and a movie?“

 

„We should go skating.“, Alex forces out and Gally sits up.

 

„What? Now?“

 

Alex shakes his head. „Not now. But, tomorrow. Or the day after that. To you know. Keep in shape.“

 

Gally grins at him. „Knew you'd put on weight when you keep eating muffins and cake like Godzilla's in town.“

 

Alex rolls his eyes and pushes him off the couch. „Fuck off.“

 

Gally stands up and grabs a fresh t-shirt. „Dinner?“ Alex nods and puts on a fresh shirt as well before they head down to the hotel restaurant.

 

They make easy conversation over their meal and eventually fall into comfortable silence. Alex almost drops his fork on the plate when Gally hooks his ankle around his under the table and smiles at him.

 

„Your pasta good?“ He points to Alex's half-empty plate and doesn't wait for an answer, instead just jabs a few noodles onto his fork and offers a „Don't mind if I do“.

 

Alex watches as the food disappears into Gally's mouth and Gally lets out a truly obscene moan. „Damn, that's good! Remind me to order that next time.“

 

Alex is kind of frozen through all of this and earns a concerned look from Gally. „You okay?“

 

That breaks Alex out of his paralyzed state and he just loads up his fork with way too much food and chews loudly to avoid having to answer.

 

Gally shrugs and digs into his own meal again. Alex almost forgets Gally's foot, until they get up to leave and he misses the contact as soon as it's gone.

 

-

 

They watch the first half of a hockey game in the olympics between two countries they don't really care about before Gally decides the bed is way more comfortable than the couch and drags Alex with him.

 

They end up watching some buddy cop movie with lots of shooting and people screaming skywards and Alex dozes off after a while.

 

When he wakes up again a little, he's got his head pillowed on Gally's chest, Gally's hand stroking his side softly, and he can hear Gally's voice vibrate underneath him. He talks quietly on the phone, almost whispering, and the tv's on too loud for him to really hear what he's saying.

 

He decides not to move and fake being asleep for a little while longer, still sleepy and tired and infinitely comfortable in this position.

 

„No, he's sleeping right now.“ There's a pause. „I'm pretty sure now. I mean he didn't react, like, at all. So.“ Another pause followed by a heavy sigh from Gally. „I don't know. I mean. Maybe.“

 

Having to pay attention to make out what Gally is saying is exhausting, Alex finds, and before he knows it, he's fallen asleep again.

 

He wakes up again later in the night and is momentarily thrown off by the darkness around him. The tv that had earlier been the only source of light in the room was now off and he's lying on his side now, feels Gally's breath ghosting over his face, so close to him, he can barely breathe. He must have made a noise, because Gally stirs, cracks one eye open, throws an arm over him and curls up a little to rest his forehead against Alex's collarbones, Alex's chin resting on top of Gally's hair.

 

„'s late. Sleep.“, Gally mumbles and squeezes Alex's hip a little before letting out even breaths again, his fingers twitching a little against the fabric of Alex's t-shirt.

 

Alex doesn't think he can ever sleep again, especially not now that his heart is working overtime, but Gally nuzzles his neck in his sleep and he's back to slumber instantly.

 

-

 

In the morning, Gally is nowhere to be found. There's no coffee, no note, his phone isn't in the room and he won't pick up either.

 

Alex starts to panic after he's still got no word from him after almost an hour, but he remembers that, technically, Gally isn't here with him. That he can very well do stuff on his own. He makes a conscious effort to lounge in front of the tv while waiting for room service (it's not because he wants to be here in case Gally comes back, he just doesn't wanna go down to get breakfast, okay?) and looks up rinks near the hotel.

 

About five minutes after Alex has finished his breakfast and gotten overly invested into a show about german house cleaners, Gally bursts into the room. He seems to remember that Alex could potentially still be asleep, and lets out a quiet „Oh, shit!“, before tiptoeing further into the room. When he sees Alex camped out in front of the tv, he breaks into a grin.

 

„Chuckster! You're up! Progress, my friend.“

 

Alex just grunts and doesn't take his gaze off the tv. He knows he's being irrationally angry, but he's still pissed off because Gally left without saying anything, so he stews in silence.

 

„So, I was chatting with Charlene-“

 

Alex turns to him. „Charlene?“

 

Gally nods. „Yeah, the girl at the front desk. She has a son called Franz and her fiancé is currently in the hospital because of a freak snowboarding accident and now she has to work more shifts to pay for a nanny for Franz and-“, he waves his hands around and shakes his head, „-that's not important! What's important is that she told me there's a rink right here at the hotel!“

 

Alex throws his phone at Gally, trusting him to catch it, which he fortunately does. „I know. I used google. Google doesn't tell me its life story when I ask for directions.“

 

Gally drops down next to Alex and gives him a look. „Are you angry?“

 

Alex takes back his phone. „No.“

 

Gally sighs. „Okay. Well, Charlene said there's a rink right here and then I had an absolutely brilliant idea!“

 

Alex gives him a doubtful look.

 

„Don't look so disbelieving, my grumpy comrade.“, he says it with a horrible accent that's probably supposed to be Russian. „We're going snowboarding tomorrow!“

 

Alex scrunches up his nose. „We don't know how to snowboard.“

 

Gally grins and punches him playfully. „Wrong. _You_ don't know how to snowboard. I used to go all the time when I was younger so I just need to, like, get back into the swing of things and I'm good to go!“

 

Alex rubs the part of his arm Gally punched and glares. „So why exactly do I have to snowboard? I can just ski while you snowboard. It's the same slope.“

 

Gally gets up and grabs random clothes out of Alex's suitcase to throw them at him. „I'm gonna teach you, it's gonna be awesome!“

 

Alex sighs heavily and grabs the mountain of clothes piled on top of him before throwing them on the bed and getting up. „Fine.“ He turns off the tv and walks over to the bathroom. „But today it's hockey.“

 

Gally keeps grinning at him and gives him a sloppy salute. „Aye, sir.“

 

-

 

The rink is small, but there's barely anyone there besides them, because everyone's skiing, sledding or whatever else there is to do.

 

They skate lazy laps for a while, chatting about the olympics, their upcoming games and chirping their teammates and various players throughout the league. They spend almost two hours just shooting a couple pucks around in a corner, so as not to get into anyone else's way and almost get into a little fight that two little girls with pigtails watch with big eyes when they stop next to them.

 

The girls shout something at them in a language neither of them can understand and when their mother skates over, she gives them a stern look and asks in broken English, „What do you think you're doing?!“

 

Alex immediately lets go of Gally, who falls backwards to the ice. „Oh. Uh. We're just.“

 

Gally gets up again and sticks out his hand to introduce himself. The woman takes it with an angry look. „I'm so sorry, ma'am. I'm Brendan, this is Alex. We're hockey players. But we're here on vacation so we thought we would get a little training in.“

 

The woman lets go of his hand and throws them a last lecturing look before taking her daughters by the hands and skating away again.

 

Gally turns back to Alex with a confused look. „That lady is scary. Did you see her look?“

 

Alex just makes a face and repeats with a high-pitched voice, „I'm so sorry, ma'am.“

 

Gally gives him a shove before skating away from him. „You suck, Galchenyuk!“

 

Alex laughs all the way to the counter where they return their rental skates, borrowed pucks and sticks.

 

-

 

They spend the better part of the evening aimlessly wandering through the hotel and jumping into the pool for a little while again before returning to their room. They get held up at the desk in the foyer by a tiny blonde woman that apparently is Charlene, who waves them closer when he spots them.

 

„Charlene! How's it going? Everything good?“, Gally greets her and smiles. Alex is vaguely jealous and not sure if it's because of how Gally is looking at Charlene or because of Gally's apparent ability to make friends literally everywhere he goes.

 

„Everything's fine, thank you. Did you have a nice day?“ Gally leans his elbows on the edge of the desk and grins.

 

„Great day! Met a really scary tourist mom though.“ Alex scoffs behind him and decides to just head up to their room and leave Gally to his conversation. When he tries to walk past the desk though, Gally grabs one of his wrists and wills him to stop.

 

„We're gonna head up, Charlene. You got any recommendations for what to do tonight?“

 

Charlene looks between them for a moment and smirks a little, turns back to Gally and cocks an eyebrow. „You don't have any plans?“

 

Alex is freaking out a little. His stupid dumb crush or _whatever_ must be blatantly visible if even the desk girl smiles at them smugly.

 

Gally doesn't seem to get what Charlene is implying though and shrugs. „Nope. None. So, is there anything fun we can do?“

 

Charlene starts giggling uncontrollably and gives him a disappointed look. „If you really can't come up with anything _fun_ to do, there's a new cocktail bar in town that just opened last week. Great drinks, great food, good prices.“ Alex kind of wants the ground to open up and swallow him.

 

Gally smiles gratefully at her and gives her a small wave. „Thanks, Charlene! Have a good night!“

 

Charlene laughs again as they make their way to the elevators and they hear her call, „You two have a good night too!“after them.

 

When they're in the elevator, Gally lets go of Alex's wrist and looks over at him. „You okay? You look a little red? Are you getting a fever?“

 

Alex is pretty sure he's screaming internally and shakes his head. „No, it's just. Hot. In the hotel. I'm warm.“

 

Gally looks unconvinced but lets it go.

 

-

 

Alex can't believe they are seriously sitting in a fucking cocktail bar. Gally forced him to „get dressed up nice, Chucky, I don't want to be seen with you like that“ when he'd put on a t-shirt, so now he's sitting next to Gally in a booth both of them dressed in nice shirts, three young girls and two guys around their age squeezed into the booth with them. Gally smells unfairly nice and looks great and Alex mentally kicks himself and takes a sip from the pink monstrosity of a cocktail he's drinking. Gally ordered them the two drinks with the most ridiculous names and, while not bad, there was next to no alcohol in there. When Alex voices this observation though, the girl next to him laughs in his face.

 

„Believe me, you don't realize it until it's too late.“

 

Gally just grins and shrugs at him, finishing the dark purple cocktail he'd ordered himself.

 

They both like the music in the bar, which is kind of a miracle, because Gally's and Alex's tastes lie pretty far apart. Because the bar hasn't been open for long, there are a lot of people in here and Alex is glad him and Gally got the last free booth when they walked in and had let the little group that was now sitting around them join them.

 

Apparently the girl next to Alex hadn't been lying about the alcohol hitting him unexpectedly, because a while later, Gally was listing more and more to his side and giggled at everything. Which was fine with Alex, really, until he started getting all handsy.

 

Right now Gally is leaning onto Alex, one arm draped across his shoulders, trying to talk to the girl next to Alex over him. He keeps checking if Alex is listening to whatever fairytales he's trying to tell the girl and grins the whole time.

 

Alex is pretty buzzed too, because he has absolutely no idea how a story about them being stuck on the god damn ski lift twice had turned into an adventure of Gally on a boat in the middle of some lake including a Pitbull CD and a receipt from McDonald's of 200 dollars. He eventually gives up on listening to Gally and just enjoys the closeness, looks around the bar a little and twirls one of the many cocktail umbrellas Gally has collected on their table.

 

At some point, Gally slips off him and slinks away from the table to go to the toilet, and the girl next to Alex, whose name he found out is Jenny or Jessie or something like that, taps him lightly on the arm.

 

„I'm sorry but can I ask you something?“, she asks quietly, but still audible over the music.

 

Alex shrugs. „Yeah, sure.“ He takes another sip from his cocktail, this one apparently blue and a lot more sour than the previous yellow one.

 

Jenny/Jessie/Jsomething bites her lip shyly before asking, „Is your friend gay?“

 

Alex almost chokes on his drink. „What?“

 

The girl shrugs and makes an apologetic face. „I'm sorry, I just. I mean I've been flirting for him for an hour now and he doesn't seem interested, so. I mean, maybe I'm just not his type.“ She waits a moment before adding, „It kind of. I'm sorry, but it kind of seemed like he was more interested in having your attention. So. I just thought, maybe, you know. You were his type.“

 

Alex's buzzed self almost does a fistpump before he remembers that it's just a girl telling him Gally's not flirting with her and not Gally telling him that he's interested in him himself.

 

Before Alex can answer, Gally comes back to the table, swaying a little and high-fiving the guys sitting on the outside of the booth for whatever reason. He tries to check his watch, realizes he's not wearing one and shoots Alex a puppy dog look.

 

Alex sighs and gulps the last few sips of his drink down in one go. He tells the other people in their booth to let him out and pushes Gally's jacket at him. „Sorry, guys. We're gonna take off. Have a good night!“ A chorus of byes follows them out and Alex intentionally ignores the look the Jenny/Jessie girl gives him when they head to the door.

 

-

 

The cab ride back to the hotel is short and, for lack of a better word, nice. Their cab driver is more the silent type and Gally sits almost in Alex's lap trying to look outside the window on Alex's side instead of the one on his side.

 

He gives comments on the houses, streets and gardens they drive by every now and then and Alex wonders if Gally's tolerance for booze is really that low or if he was sneaking shots all night from someone.

 

When they get out of the cab, Alex tips the driver and Gally almost falls flat on his face on the icy street in front of the hotel. Alex grabs his shoulder in the last moment to stead him and Gally smiles up at him. „Galchenyuk, my hero. Savin' me again from icy roads.“ He sighs dramatically and Alex just shakes his head and tries to fight the smile spreading over his face.

 

He lets go of Gally's shoulder and is about to take off into the direction of the hotel's entrance when he feels Gally slip his hand into Alex's. He looks at his drunken friend, who just shrugs at him. „For safety.“, he says, as if that makes any sense, and just starts walking, Alex stumbling behind him confusedly.

 

Gally doesn't let go of Alex's hand even when they've reached the elevator, just strokes his thumb across the back of Alex's hand and looks at their reflection in the elevator mirror with a dopey smile.

 

He finally lets go when they get into the room but Alex has barely closed the door when he turns around and has Gally suddenly pressed up against him, pinning him with his back to the door.

 

„What the-“

 

Gally cuts him off with a chaste kiss to his lips. „You suck, Alex. Drivin' me crazy.“, he whispers when he leans back. He gives Alex a quick once over and disappears into the bathroom to brush his teeth, as he announces loudly.

 

Alex is kinda glad he can't move right now, because he's not sure his knees wouldn't give out under him. The whole thing had happened so fast he isn't sure if it actually really happened, and when Gally comes back out of the bathroom, Alex is still standing with his back pressed to the door.

 

Gally is trying to tell him something, or maybe he's just thinking out loud, either way he keeps mumbling something, interrupting himself with giggles a couple times. He seems to forget Alex is still here until he's safely tucked into bed.

 

„Chucky, whatcha doin' over, over there?“ He's facedown on the mattress, half his words mumbled into the pillow, flopping a hand into Alex's general direction. „C'mon. Bed.“ He laughs, as if he's remembering something funnny. „'s comfy.“

 

Alex goes to the bathroom and brushes his teeth on autopilot. He's weirdly sober again and his hands are shaking a little.

 

Gally is already sleeping when Alex comes back into the room and Alex is at a loss. Drunken actions don't always mean something, they rarely do, actually, or so he tells himself. It's easier to not get his hopes up. If you don't expect anything, you can't be disappointed. Or maybe at least less disappointed. He steals one of the blankets an a pillow from the bed and curls up on the too small couch.

 

His head is spinning a little and he tosses and turns for what feels like an eternity before he falls into a restless, dreamless slumber.

 

-

 

Alex's mood next morning is predictably shitty and only gets worse throughout the day.

 

There are two things he realizes soon after he wakes up: Gally doesn't remember anything, and doesn't even have a hangover because life is unfair, and the couch in their room is absolutely the wrong choice to sleep on.

 

Gally is cheerful and excited when he wakes up. He won't shut up about „all the snowboarding we're gonna do today“ and when he asks Alex why he slept on the couch, Alex gives him a look.

 

„Because of you.“

 

„Oh no, did I kick in my sleep again? Because I can tell you-“

 

„You don't remember what you did last night?“

 

Gally gives him a nervous look. „What did I do?“

 

Alex sighs. „Nothing, you... you talked too much.“

 

Gally bites his lip but grins. „Uh. Sorry. Won't happen again.“ He mimes zipping up his mouth and waits for a reaction from Alex. Alex just rolls his eyes and tells him to get ready for breakfast and snowboarding after.

 

During breakfast, Gally won't shut up about this weird dream he had and Alex already kind of dreads having Gally teach him snowboarding and wants to just lock himself away in their room and wallow in self-pity for a while.

 

When they pick up the snowboards Gally babbles to him non-stop and when they're finally standing in line for the lift, he seems to run out of things to talk about. Alex is endlessly happy the lift doesn't get stuck again and when they reach the top of the mountain, Gally holds a hand out for him.

 

„What?“

 

„I said, hold my hand so I can steady you. Other way 'round this time, eh?“ Alex hesitates and Gally grins and grabs Alex's hand. „I said hold my hand, motherfucker. Alright now watch me and follow my lead, okay?“

 

And this is how Alex spends the majority of his day holding hands with the guy he's unfortunately in love with. He likes. Likes! Love is not a thing he will touch with a ten foot pole right now.

 

As it turns out, „getting back into the swing of things“ is actually more of a challenge than Gally thought it would be, and so they end up sitting in the snow more than actually snowboarding.

 

When they reach the end of the slope a fifth or sixth time, Gally gives Alex a judgemental look. „Can you stop glaring at me for a minute? I'm trying my best here, okay!“

 

Alex raises his eyebrows. „I wasn't glaring.“

 

Gally just rolls his eyes. „You're obviously pissed off at me for something but you won't talk about it. Which is fine, have it your way. But if you wanna throw a bitchfit, don't let it out on me if you won't tell me what's going on.“

 

Alex nods slowly and looks away. „Can we return the boards and have dinner early?“

 

Gally shrugs. „Fine.“

 

Alex sort of wishes Gally was mad at him now instead of being passive aggressive and looking like Alex threw an axe at him.

 

They don't talk to each other anymore after that, until Gally comes out of the bathroom, freshly showered and wrapped into a towel, grabbing his phone. „Go shower. I'm gonna look for a good place to eat, okay?“

 

Alex just shrugs and gets off of the couch to go into the bathroom. Gally catches him by the elbow when he passes him and looks at him with a serious face. He's about to say something but then changes his mind and and smiles. „Are you cool with Italian? I know you said something about pizza earlier.“ He waits for a reply and his smile falters a little with every silent second passing by.

 

Eventually, he lets go of Alex's arm and Alex shrugs again. „Yeah. Cool.“

 

Now, if Alex were a sixteen year old girl from one of these tv soaps they show over here, he would turn on the shower and sit on the floor and cry a little. Because Alex is very manly, however, he just tells himself to get over it and jerks off in the shower.

 

-

 

The restaurant Gally picked is busy with what Alex guesses must be a billion families but the pizzas are freaking gigantic huge and taste amazing. Alex says so out loud while chewing a piece of crust.

 

Gally nods proudly and takes off an imaginary hat. „Thank you, thank you. I know, I have amazing taste in restaurants.“

 

Alex just shoots him a look. „You've never been here before, Charlene just told you it was good.“

 

Gally just grins. „Actually, Charlene was already gone when I asked. Her colleague Louise told me it was good. Either way, I'm awesome.“

 

Alex ignores the part of him that's ready to blurt out „Yeah you are“ and just stuffs more pizza into his mouth. He's pretty sure, after they've eaten, that they're slowly slipping into a pizza induced coma on the table and kind of zones out until Gally kicks him lightly in the shin under the table.

 

„You wanna get a milkshake?“ He pushes the dessert card into Alex face, who lets out a quiet _ooof_.

 

Alex waves him off. „If I get a milkshake now, I'm probably gonna die.“

 

Gally chuckles and leans back in his seat again as he drops the card on the table again. „Wanna share one?“ He gives Alex a lazy smile and Alex sits up a little straighter.

 

„Order one, I'll take the scraps.“, he answers belatedly as Gally flags down the waiter.

 

Apparently, if you order a milkshake with two straws what you get is a huge milkshake and a single straw.

 

Gally grins when he pushes the milkshake over the table to Alex after a few minutes. When Alex sucks on the straw he raises his eyebrows at Gally. „What?“

 

Gally just waggles his eyebrows. „You know you're indirectly kissing me right now.“

 

Alex forcefully shoves the memories of the previous night to the back of his brain and shrugs. „What are you, a teenage girl?“

 

Gally just looks away and motions Alex to give back the milkshake.

 

The evening passes without further incident and when they get back to the hotel, Alex's first instinct is to grab a blanket and a pillow from the bed and make the couch his castle to sleep in again.

 

Gally just stares at him from where he's standing in the middle of the room. „What the fuck are you doing?“

 

Alex stops halway through his mission and looks at him. „Huh?“

 

Gally points at the blanket Alex is holding. „Why are you sleeping on the couch again? I'm not drunk.“ He stops for a second. „Unless too much food makes you drunk, but I highly doubt that. I didn't say a word the whole way back to the room.“

 

„I just.“ Alex's heart is racing a little trying to come up with an excuse that isn't I think you're great and I would very much like to kiss you again. „The couch is. More comfortable.“

 

Gally frowns. „You're bullshitting.“

 

Alex hestitates before shaking his head. Gally squints at him and then walks over to the bed, grabs the second blanket and sinks down on the couch. He experimentally rolls himself around on it with the blanket for a little bit before sitting up and throwing the blanket back over to the bed in a balled up heap of fluff. „That couch sucks to sleep on.“ He gets up and takes the blanket from Alex and throws it back on the bed as well. „Why are you lying to me?“

 

In the next moment, Alex's brain sort of short-circuits and he panics. „None of your business!“

 

Gally takes a step back and puts his hands up. „Whoa, okay, calm down. I was just-“

 

Alex grabs his key card for the room from where he'd put it down on the nighstand and walks to the door.

 

„Where are you going?“

 

„Out.“ And with that, Alex closes the door behind him and steps out into the hallway. He frantically thinks that he should be running and curses himself for leaving his running shoes at home. He takes off into the direction of the stairs and spends a long time aimlessly walking through the hotel.

 

When Alex gets back to the room, it's a little before midnight and the room is dark except for the lowlight of the running tv. He tries to be quiet as he sneaks through the room and finds Gally curled up like a ball on the couch, phone on the floor next to his head, he'd probably dropped it, the idiot, tv on mute. Alex's heart is heavy as he takes one of the blankets on the bed and drops it over Gally's sleeping form.

 

He turns to walk back to the bed, when he feels one of Gally's hands holding on to his jeans. „'m sorry.“, Gally mumbles out, eyes still closed and Alex kind of wants to hug him. Instead, he just turns off the tv, answers „It's okay“ and gets into bed.

 

It takes him ages to fall asleep.

 

-

 

Both Gally and Alex are silent through most of the next morning, except for when they need to talk. They get breakfast and back to their room, deciding to stay in today, Alex sprawled out on the couch, texting Anna, Gally playing some game on his phone on the bed.

 

The tv's running in the background and Alex is pretty sure you could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

 

Sometime around noon they decide to order lunch and munch away sitting on the couch. They agree to hit the slope again tomorrow and Gally excuses himself with a sheepish look on the face when his phone rings. „Uh. Sorry, family. I'm gonna just-“ he waves at the door „I'm gonna take this outside.“

 

Alex doesn't react and bangs his head against the couch table once when Gally's left the room. He uses the time Gally's outside to call home as well and gets an earful of swearwords when Anna picks up.

 

„Did you remember you have a family?“, she asks when he's done nagging him about not calling earlier.

 

„Hi, Anna. Nice to hear from you too. How are you?“, Alex deadpans and can pretty much see Anna sticking her tongue out at him through the phone.

 

They talk about what Alex did since the last time they talked and Alex gracefully maneuvers Anna away from her questions about him and Gally.

 

„How are you and the hubby holding up in the cold, cold mountains? Snuggling for warmth? Did you see a yeti yet?“

 

„So, how's Mom's book club?“ Well, maybe it was graceful in Alex's head.

 

„Stop dodging my questions!“

 

„You don't get to ask questions.“

 

„I just wanna know how you and loverboy are doing, that's all.“

 

„He's not-“ When Gally re-enters the room, Alex switches to Russian. „He's not my loverboy, okay.“

 

Anna doesn't say anything for a moment. „You wish he was, though.“

 

„He's not.“

 

Anna sounds amused and Alex fights the urge to just hang up on her right now. „Is that disappointment I hear?“

 

Gally's watching Alex with intent eyes now, maybe he's trying to decipher what Alex is saying, maybe he's waiting for Alex to hang up so they can argue again, maybe he's about to tell Alex that he just saw a yeti in the hallway, who knows. He lets himself drop down on the other end of the couch

 

„I'm gonna go now. Tell Mom and Dad hi.“

 

Anna laughs. „Alright. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!“ Alex rolls his eyes and ends the call without saying goodbye.

 

Gally's still staring at Alex like he's a particularly hard crossword puzzle and Alex feels a little like he's being questioned by a cop.

 

„What? What are you looking at?“

 

Gally's voice is quiet when he answers. „You.“ Without saying anything further, he gets up, searches for his swim trunks and takes his key card.

 

Alex follows him with his eyes all the way to the door, where Gally stops and turns back to him. „I'm going to the pool.“

 

Alex nods and Gally leaves without another word.

 

This vacation is slowly but surely turning into the worst vacation Alex has ever been on, including the bee pancake incident and the broken ankle summer camp trip.

 

-

 

Alex finds the gym on the ground floor and spends the rest of the day there blowing off steam. Fuck Prusty for giving him this vacation, fuck Gally for being Gally and fuck Alex for falling for his arguably best friend.

 

Gally's still not back when Alex goes up to their room to shower, so he decides to just eat dinner alone and hangs out in the hotel restaurant for a while. He's already halfway through his burger and fries when Gally enters the restaurant looking a lot more like his usual self.

 

He sits down across from Alex at the table and steals one of Alex's fries. „There you are!“, he says while chewing and Alex makes a face at him.

 

He swallows before answering, because he has manners, unlike someone else at this table. „Here I am.“

 

Gally sneakily takes a couple more of Alex's fries and orders the same when a waiter comes over to them. He turns back to Alex and drums his fingers softly on the table. „Can we stop not talking to each other?“

 

Alex hesitates, then nods and watches as Gally's face goes through a series of different emotions before he breaks into a grin. „Good, because I need to tell you about what happened earlier when I was in the pool.“

 

He launches into a detailed description of his afternoon and early evening and by the time both him and Gally are finished with their meals, Alex almost feels like nothing's happened between them.

 

-

 

They watch the last period of America's hockey match against some Euroteam and the awkwardness returns when the game ends and Alex sinks down on the mattress, Gally standing at the edge of the bed a little lost.

 

„Uh.“ He tugs a little at the blanket Alex isn't rolled up in already and his shoulders sag a little. „Right.“, he mutters under his breath and Alex sighs and folds back both blankets.

 

„Just get in, christ.“

 

There's a pink tint to Gally's cheeks when he slips under the covers next to Alex and lies flat on his back. He turns his head to smile at Alex, who's unfortunately lying on his side and gets caught staring at Gally. „My name's Brendan, not Christ, but close enough, I guess.“ He gestures between them. „Language barrier, eh?“

 

Alex snorts and turns his back to Gally without a reply. Gally turns out the light a moment later and the quiet of the room lies heavy in the air above them.

 

Gally whispers into the dark after a while. „Hey, Chucky?“

 

„What.“

 

„Goodnight.“

 

Alex doesn't say anything for a long moment, but he knows Gally's still waiting on a reply, knows it by the quiet breathing, Gally's fingers drumming an irregular beat on his chest.

 

„Night, Gallagher.“

 

-

 

Alex has a dream where he falls out of a flying plane and when he reaches the ground, Gally's somehow there and catches him. In his dream, they smile at eachother but then Gally's face turns into a creepy grimace and he drops Alex and starts laughing at him.

 

Alex has another dream where they're back with the team and everyone keeps looking at him like they're disgusted and when he asks Gally what's going on, Gally shoves him away and looks at him with pity.

 

Every time Alex wakes up during the night, there's Gally softly snoring next to him, face now buried into Alex's shoulder, and every time Alex gets a sinking feeling in his stomach when he closes his eyes again.

 

-

 

Alex is a little amazed at how beautiful the weather has been and continues to be when they leave the hotel for the slope. He'd woken up in a bad mood, not even close to well rested and relaxed and they're almost late for breakfast.

 

Now that they're standing outside in the cold February air, he feels a little better and when Gally hands him his pair of skis he thinks that maybe he can still enjoy the rest of their vacation.

 

Gally had insisted on getting a snowboard again, despite Alex's many, very good and accurate arguments on why he shouldn't and they make easy conversation on their way to the lift.

 

As soon as they're past the halfway mark of the lift ride though, Alex takes everything back and is torn between crying, screaming and turning into the Hulk, because the lift comes to a standstill _again_.

 

„This has got to be a fucking joke!“, he shouts as loud as he can, and Gally flinches at Alex's sudden outburst. „What the fuck is this lift?!“

 

After a couple minutes of Alex ranting and Gally looking increasingly worried about his physical health as well as Alex's sanity, the two women in the seat on front of them try to get their attention.

 

„Hey! The lift guy said a fuse blew! Or froze over! It's gonna take a while! They say they will have the lift up and running as soon as possible! Tell it to the people behind you!“

 

Gally shouts a „Thank you!“ back and tries to pass on the message to the couple in the seat behind them as best as he can before sinking a little lower on the lift seat. „This kinda sucks.“, he says to Alex and crosses his arms over his chest.

 

Alex is kind of exhausted from his rage rant and scoffs. „You think?“

 

He can tell Gally is trying his best to not make the same mistake as before and ramble on about everything under the sun, so they sit around waiting with the only sound the cold wind blowing into their faces.

 

-

 

Alex is going to freeze or starve to death on a god damn lift.

 

He knows they must have been stuck up here for probably an hour, because the sun overhead is steadily moving closer and closer to the mountain tops. The other people on the lift have given up on passing along „just a little while longer“ messages at this point and Alex is cold and hungry and hates everything.

 

„I think I saw a horror movie like this once.“, Gally muses and holds his stomach when it growls so loud even Alex can hear it. Alex doesn't react, so Gally pulls a little on his arm. „Chucky, I'm cold.“

 

„You think I'm not?“

 

Gally lets out a frustrated noise and scoots closer to Alex, draping Alex's arm over himself.

 

„What are you doing?“

 

Gally shrugs and pushes his face into Alex's jacket. „Cuddling for warmth. Don't wanna get frostbite, right?“

 

This can't possible be Alex's actual, real life right now. „I hate this lift.“

 

At some point, Gally gets both his arms around Alex and sighs with content.

 

„How are you not pissed off right now?“, Alex asks and gets a hum from Gally in return.

 

„I mean. Yeah. This sucks. But it could be worse right?“ He looks up at Alex's face, way too close all of a sudden and licks his lips. „I could be stuck here with Chara.“

 

Alex swallows hard and tries to focus on something that isn't Gally's face inches from his own. „In what scenario are you stuck on a lift with Zdeno Chara?“

 

Gally tilts his head a little but doesn't back away. „Doesn't matter. I'm glad I'm. You know. Stuck up here with you. I guess.“ He seems to check Alex's face for something, then sighs and moves away from Alex a little bit. „Nevermind, this sucks major ass, I'm never going skiing again. This vacation is a disaster.“

 

Alex is sort of confused by this quick change in mood and keeps staring at Gally. What just happened?

 

„I'm not sure I follow your line of thought here.“

 

Gally groans and throws his hands up in the air. „Okay, actually, you know what? I am pissed off! I'm extremely, absolutely, furiously pissed off!“

 

Alex is taken aback by Gally's angry shouting and tentatively puts a calming hand on one of his now lowered arms.

 

Gally takes a breath before continuing at a lower volume. „You piss me the fuck off, Galchenyuk, you know that?!“

 

Alex is pretty sure his pulse is way too fast right now and Gally keeps glaring at him with a heated look in his eyes.

 

„I tried everything! Literally _everything_! I even asked fucking Prusty for advice, which, by the way, bad idea!“

 

„I don't-“

 

„-understand! Yes! You don't!“ Gally looks away from Alex's face and down onto the slope below them. He takes a deep breath before letting everything out in a rough voice.

 

„You said I was annoying, so I tried to shut up more. And I did the whole gentleman routine! I pulled out your fucking chair for you! And then you're always talking in Russian on the phone, and I'm sure your mom has told you that before, but that's rude! Honestly, I just! You were weird outside the restaurant and then you held my fucking hand and I got like all dressed up for you and I made sure we'd only get to see that stupid romantic movie in the theater! And okay, I admit I cried, fuck you!“

 

Alex is about to say something but Gally just puts up a hand and continues his rant.

 

„And then you started cuddling with me and I though, 'oh this is nice, maybe I actually do have a chance with this stupid dumb amazing asshole' but you shoved me away so I had to lie about being homesick! And I'm sorry about that, okay? I am. But then you kept telling me to like, hook up with someone, so I tried to like woo you through our shared interest and we watched the game and it was so nice to just. Just. Look, I got you breakfast almost in bed, okay? I did dinner and a movie like five hundred times since we got here. And then I-“

 

Gally breaks off and hesitates before continuing. „And then I kissed you, and you didn't react and I just. I thought maybe you just didn't want to kiss me when we're both extremely drunk. Because I'm apparently more naive than a fucking child. Which I am, according to you. So then I tried to impress you with my mad snowboarding skills but you just-“

 

Gally's voice got quieter and quieter towards the end of his little speech and now he finally looks up at Alex again, face flushed red from anger or maybe embarrassment, eyes wide and pleading.

 

„You just drive me fucking crazy, Alex Galchenyuk. And I'm gonna need you to tell me whether or not you have feelings for me right now, because I think we're high enough up that if I jump down and hit my head, I'll get amnesia and forget this whole thing instead of dying of embarrassment. I get it if. You know. You don't wanna be friends anymore. Or something. I just.“ He lets out a heavy sigh. „I just need to _know_.“

 

Gally keeps his gaze fixed on Alex's face, who's kind of struggling to take all of this in without throwing up, falling off the lift or fainting.

 

„Wow.“, he breathes out eventually and Gally lets out a laugh that sounds like he's close to tears.

 

Alex wraps his hands around Galls arms and looks at him with heated determination. „Are you done now?“

 

Gally nods and looks a little unsure, a little scared of what Alex might do next.

 

And all Alex can really do right now is lean forward and press his lips to Gally's.

 

He feels Gally kiss him back without hesitation and both of them don't realize the lift is moving again until they break apart to take a deep breath.

 

Gally's face is still flushed, Alex suspects he might actually be blushing now and knows from the way his cheeks are heated up that he probably doesn't look much better.

 

„So-“

 

Alex kisses him again to shut him up. When he leans back again, he tries to look serious but knows his smile is kind of ruining that. „If you start singing again now, I will still throw you off this lift.“

 

A grin slowly spreads across Gally's. „So.“

 

Alex shrugs and smiles without looking at Gally. „Why didn't you say something?“

 

Gally scoffs. „Excuse me, I poured like, my heart and soul into this! I did some planning! It's not my fault you're oblivious as fuck.“ He thumps Alex's arm lightly. „Why didn't _you_ say something?“

 

„I didn't think you...“ Alex trails off and looks to the end of the lift they're finally slowly approaching now.

 

Gally chuckles and leans over to give Alex a quick kiss on the cheek. „Alex Galchenyuk. You are a huge loser and, to be honest, your taste in music sucks.“ Alex looks over at him and is kind of thrown by the look on Gally's face, all earnest and soft. „I love you anyway.“

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> y'all gotta write more fics for this ship bc do you see what happens when you don't


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